The Wizard of Roarke

The music industry may not be selling as many records but the music fan has not gone away. In fact there are more ways than ever people who love music can discover new artists (previously left to bands who were on big record labels, were played on the radio, or toured a often) Thanks to the world wide web, there are thousands of ways and platforms for people to find new music or learn more about a band. The marketing oportunities for an artist in the modern world are bountiful. We have more avenues than ever to get our music heard, gain exposure, and to reach / interact with fans.

This brings me to the soulful yet childlike voice of Roarke.

A few days ago I had never heard of her but a quick internet search not only revealed the artist behind a voice in a television commercial but it also showed me just how many people where like me, also looking to find out who this musician was. People are listening and care enough to try and find more music by this artist.

A new advertising campaign kicked off for the University of Phoenix on February 12th. It features a remake of "If I Only Had a Brain" from the Wizard of Oz. For one minute, the listener hears a woman's voice singing along to a piano. The lyrics from this song (written by Arlen/ Harburg) first heard in 1939 have been updated but it is her fragile voice that draws you in. We the viewer and listener know this is just an advertisement but the attack of the song (meaning the voice singing the jingle) sells the idea of an already hard working individual trying to better his or her self. We see and hear a struggle for a better life - not just for themselves but for their family. The premise is that increasing your education can bring positive change in your life. Through education new jobs, more money, and a better life awaits. This is a big message to try and push in 60 seconds. This is a lot of pressure to put on an advertising agency who is hired to deliver this sales pitch. The sales angle is key but the power of song to knock this message out of the park is more evident than ever.

From the looks of the response on social media (and yes, loads of insulting Youtube comment too), people are curious about the woman behind this voice.

For those who want to hear more from the NYC musician, here is her Soundcloud page where you can hear some original material and lots of covers versions of everything from Nirvana to The Pixies and Karen O.

Meet Nicole Blonder, VP of Marketing at Mute Records N. America

My goal is to post a different letter from a women within the music industry every few weeks in 2016. The idea is to show that there is no one correct way into the music industry and that there are endless routes to take once you find yourself in it. 

Nicole Blonder and I crossed paths somewhere in the early 2000s. I was just beginning my career as a sales rep at an indie music distributor called Caroline. We worked alongside many remarkable record label and Mute was one of them. Nicole would work with sales reps like myself on many levels. She was educating us about each new release by sharing the new music and background on the artist before we began trying to sell it to our account base. We would then work together to plan our best course of action when selling the record. There were sales goals, target markets, and as a team we would focus on getting these new releases into the marketplace. On top of these new release cycles there were also annual conferences she presented to us at, shows we attended together, and then the occasional joint visits a key account if we felt that her representing the label and artist might help increase our chances of a store not only carrying the record but also in a quantity we felt was appropropriate. We would also unsure there was a marketing plan in place with that store or distributor to help sell through their purchase. We timed things not just around the street date of a new release but around artist tours as well. Needless to say we spent a lot of time together for the 10 plus years I worked at Caroline and she at Mute.

We all know how rare it is for any company in the music industry to last the test of time (Mute has been around since 1978!) and it is even rarer that an employee stays in one place for 15 + years. I respect Nicole so much for the work she has accomplished and consider her to be not just an expert in music sales and marketing but also one of the genuinely kind people I have ever had the honor of working with. I give you Nicole Blonder.

Nicole (left) and I (right) on an industry boat ride back in the day.

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It all began for me, like a lot of us, through a pure passion for and connection to music. By the time I got to high school I was fully submerged and super excited about discovering good music - new and old. Started buying CDs, borrowing my dad's 60s/70s records, and going to concerts when I could.  Pivotal radio stations for me were WDRE in Long Island and WHTG in NJ (when I could get the signal!). I was definitely a 90s Alternative radio girl. At some point I started paying attention to the labels associated with my favorite bands, which opened up even more avenues of discovery.  I was also guided by a few magazines and catalogs I'd see at the bookstore - CMJ in particular, came with a CD which I thought was brilliant, and Sassy of course.  I grew up in super deep Brooklyn and hadn't yet discovered the cool record shops of Manhattan.

At some point during my senior year of high school a friend invited me to write a few CD reviews for a small magazine she got involved with, which lead to us attending a small music conference at NYU. A few local labels had tables set up there, selling music & merch. One of them was Go-Kart Records. They had cool shirts, even if I hadn't heard of their bands before and I picked up some free stickers and I think they had a zine I also grabbed.

As I was graduating high school (Midwood, in Brooklyn) another friend and I thought it might be fun to intern for a label the summer before starting college, so I contacted Go-Kart, thinking it would be a total long shot because all labels were big and fancy and didn't need high school kids hanging around. Greg Ross, the guy who ran the label, contacted me, and my best friend Daena and I got jobs as summer interns for Go-Kart in the summer of '95. I went back as an intern the subsequent two summers home from college. It was a super scrappy outfit, run out of Greg's old 2 bedroom apartment near NYU. There was one real employee, and me, so I was exposed to a lot, and learned a ton pretty quickly. My main job there eventually was calling record stores to check stock, assembling packages, bringing things to the post office and other menial tasks. It was down and dirty but I loved it.

I started Binghamton University in Fall '95, and luckily one of the first friends I met in my dorm was a sophomore who loved all the same music as me and had a radio show. He invited me to be his apprentice and I felt like I won the lottery. I was on the air at WHRW every semester from then through to my last. It was a total blast and one of my very favorite things about college. A super musical education too, WHRW's record library was a treasure trove and I spent a lot of time digging around, finding random things and just listening to music. I was also amazed at how much everyone there knew about music I had never even heard of! Students and community members both. Jr & Sr years I served as music director, and all the label radio promotions folks would call, as they do, to talk records. My final college summer, I found two internships with Sire (who actually paid!) and Matador. I'm still friendly with folks I worked for then. I graduated in '99 and not knowing what I really wanted to do, figured I'd send my resume to everyone I'd met in music so far because it seemed like fun and I did not want a un-fun job. I got a call from Mute, and started working there the day after labor day 1999 as Retail Coordinator, mostly thanks to the experience I had at Go-Kart.

The rest, as they say, is history.....I